General devotees

Expressions researched:
"general devotee" |"general devotees"

SB Canto 3

The Lord's activities in confidential love are very rarely disclosed to the general devotees who are attracted by devotion mixed with knowledge and mysticism.

SB 3.4.19, Translation and Purport:

When I thus expressed my heartfelt desires unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the lotus-eyed Lord instructed me about His transcendental situation.

The words paramāṁ sthitim are significant in this verse. The Lord's transcendental situation was not even spoken of to Brahmā when the four verses of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (2.9.33-36) were explained. This transcendental situation comprises His dealings with devotees engaged in transcendental loving service, as exhibited at Dvārakā and Vṛndāvana. When the Lord explained His specific transcendental situation, it was meant for Uddhava only, and therefore Uddhava particularly said mahyam ("unto me"), although the great sage Maitreya was also sitting there. Such a transcendental situation is hardly understood by those whose devotion is mixed with speculative knowledge or fruitive activities. The Lord's activities in confidential love are very rarely disclosed to the general devotees who are attracted by devotion mixed with knowledge and mysticism. Such activities are the inconceivable pastimes of the Lord.

SB Canto 7

My dear King Yudhiṣṭhira, the gopīs by their lusty desires, Kaṁsa by his fear, Śiśupāla and other kings by envy, the Yadus by their familial relationship with Kṛṣṇa, you Pāṇḍavas by your great affection for Kṛṣṇa, and we, the general devotees, by our devotional service, have obtained the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

SB 7.1.31, Translation and Purport:

My dear King Yudhiṣṭhira, the gopīs by their lusty desires, Kaṁsa by his fear, Śiśupāla and other kings by envy, the Yadus by their familial relationship with Kṛṣṇa, you Pāṇḍavas by your great affection for Kṛṣṇa, and we, the general devotees, by our devotional service, have obtained the mercy of Kṛṣṇa.

Different persons achieve different types of mukti-sāyujya, sālokya, sārūpya, sāmīpya and sārṣṭi—according to their own intense desire, which is called bhāva. Thus it is described here that the gopīs, by their lusty desires, which were based upon their intense love for Kṛṣṇa, became the most beloved devotees of the Lord. Although the gopīs at Vṛndāvana expressed their lusty desires in relationship with a paramour (parakīya-rasa), they actually had no lusty desires. This is significant of spiritual advancement. Their desires appeared lusty, but actually they were not the lusty desires of the material world. Caitanya-caritāmṛta compares the desires of the spiritual and material world to gold and iron. Both gold and iron are metal, but there is a vast difference in their value. The lusty desires of the gopīs for Kṛṣṇa are compared to gold, and material lusty desires are compared to iron.

Kaṁsa and other enemies of Kṛṣṇa merged into the existence of Brahman, but why should Kṛṣṇa's friends and devotees have the same position? Kṛṣṇa's devotees attain the association of the Lord as His constant companions, either in Vṛndāvana or in the Vaikuṇṭha planets. Similarly, although Nārada Muni wanders in the three worlds, he has exalted devotion for Nārāyaṇa (aiśvaryamān). The Vṛṣṇis and Yadus and the father and mother of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana all have familial relationships with Kṛṣṇa; Kṛṣṇa's foster father and mother in Vṛndāvana, however, are more exalted than Vasudeva and Devakī.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

So our movement is to make people in general devotee. Then he'll understand God. Then his life will be successful. That's all. You be yourself devotee and try to make others devotee.

Lecture on BG 2.20-25 -- Seattle, October 14, 1968:

So our movement is to make people in general devotee. Then he'll understand God. Then his life will be successful. That's all. You be yourself devotee and try to make others devotee. Then both your life and the person who is under your instruction, he, everyone is successful. And without being devotee, you cannot make others devotee. That is also a secret. If you remain nondevotee, you cannot convince others. That is not in your power. Therefore the nondevotee class of men, they cannot understand God, they cannot convince others about God. That's a fact. They'll simply present hodge-podge thing, they do not understand clearly, and they present hodge-podge. That's all. Without being... Bhaktyā mām abhijānāti yāvān yaś cāsmi tattvataḥ (BG 18.55). "If anyone wants to understand Me as I am..." Of course, nobody can understand Kṛṣṇa as He is, still, as far as possible. That is only through bhakti. Bhaktyā, it is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā. It doesn't say that through knowledge, philosophical speculation or through haṭha-yoga system. No. He says bhaktyā, clearly. And in the beginning also He says, "Because you are My bhakta, therefore I shall reveal to you." The whole science is for the devotee. Not for anyone else. Those who are not devotees, their understanding of God is blocked forever. They cannot understand. It is a fact. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says, māyāvādī-bhāṣya śunile haya sarva-nāśa (CC Madhya 6.169). If anyone tries to understand these impersonalist Māyāvādī philosophers, then his, I mean to say, progress is blocked for good. Not for good, of course. Nothing can be for good. But for the present at least his progress is blocked. Sarva-nāśa. Chant. Hare Kṛṣṇa.